Category - ADI

Another Autoblog story – football stars top the league of “bad drivers”.

I’m not completely clear on why this is considered “news”. It’s more a statement of the obvious – and it has more than a few links with the previous story from Autoblog about young male drivers’ insurance premiums.

According to findings by insurance firm elephant.co.uk, 28.9 per cent of professional footballers – almost one in three – have flouted the rules of the road and paid the price with points, fines or worse still, bans.

OK, OK. So it’s from an insurance company engaged in promoting itself with one of those daft surveys, but it is still an interesting topic (for a few minutes, anyway).

All it requires is the application of a little logic:

• stupidity, immaturity, and an inflated ego are key factors in accidents among young males
• footballers are usually young and immature
• footballers have bags of money
• footballers have huge egos
• footballers by stupidly fast cars

There’s not much point going on, is there? Like I said, it’s just stating the bloody obvious.

I saw this story in Autoblog. There is a discrimination hearing next month at the European Court of Justice.

The final decision is expected on 1 March, and could see the gap closed between the prices male and female drivers pay for their insurance. The 17-22 age bracket is set to suffer the most, with prices for female drivers currently over £1,000 less than their male equivalents.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Personally, I find any form of discrimination abhorrent – positive discrimination especially so. I had a skinful of it when I was in the rat race.

Also interesting is this:

Spokesman for the AA, Ian Crowder, said that the traditional difference between the two genders was based on statistical evidence.

“It is not that women have fewer accidents, it is that men are more likely to take risks and have a catastrophic crash,” he said. “The typical one is where a young man is showing off to his mates or his girlfriend.”

He said The AA has already had two claims from male teenagers in excess of £5m this year for crashes where serious injury or fatalities involved.

Talk about conflicting information. This is the first time I’ve heard this used as a reason why male drivers’ insurance is high, and also the first time I’ve seen anyone officially admit women don’t have fewer accidents.

This story caught my eye in the Belfast Telegraph. A 22 year old man was killed in a car crash on Sunday in Limavady.

He had only recently passed his driving test.His three teenage passengers sustained only minor injuries.

At the moment, enquiries are still continuing, so it would be wrong to speculate about the cause of this specific incident (and the Police are looking for another car which may have been involved). However, just looking at the basic details – new driver, car full of teenage mates… it’s exactly what the DSA on the mainland has been concerned about.

No one is saying that all new male drivers drive recklessly. But they are nowhere near as skilled as they think they are when they pass, and having three passengers with the same attitude in the car at the same time is bound to result in even greater impaired reaction on the part of the driver in the event of an emergency situation arising.

It really is a classic situation, though. Last year one of my 17-year old pupils passed his test, and was out driving within an hour. Later that afternoon I went round to pick up one of his friends for his lesson. I pulled up outside and the lad who’d passed earlier rolled up a few minutes later in his car with my next pupil and two other passengers from his school. And where had they been? McDonalds. You can set your watch by them, they’re so predictable.

At the moment, it seems that people are trying to dump responsibility for this problem at the feet of the driving instructor.

However, the problem lies with parents and society – not driving instructors. And even then, you have to ask if it is actually possible to change something – the often-unpleasant and surly attitude of the juvenile human male – which no one else has succeeded in changing in all of recorded history.

My diary is full at the moment – in fact, it has been for quite some time, so I’m not knocking it.

But one thing anyone entering this business needs to be aware of is how quickly things can change. A good example being today.

I started with 6½ hours booked.

I was on my first lesson this morning – a two hour one – when a text comes through. When we pulled up I had a glance and noticed it was from my next pupil – he wanted to drop the lesson down to an hour because he was going somewhere. He lives a long way out, and an hour isn’t enough to do anything useful, so I suggested we just postpone it until next week’s lesson. Then, 20 minutes before I set off for my third lesson another text came through – she can’t make it and wants to rearrange for a night in the week (which I can do). Then I went to my last one and it turned out his mum had forgotten to tell him (he is a special needs pupil). There’s no way I’m letting him drive if he’s not prepared, especially in the rain, so that one went as well.

To be fair, I don’t get many of these because I make it clear it’s my livelihood as well as their driving lessons, and they all understand. But every now and then one crops up.

I was looking at the PWC website and found the following FAQ letter sent to BSM franchisees as part of the takeover:

Questions and Answers- BSM Instructor Franchise

Franchise Agreement

Q Due to Acromas now owning BSM will I have to change my Franchise to the AA?

A The terms of this agreement are outlined to you in a letter which you will receive in the post in the next few days. Acromas will continue with your franchise agreement and be bound by its terms in every way as if it were the original party to it in place of BSM other than those terms explained in your letter. It is business as usual.

Q Are you expecting to change the cost of my franchise?

A There are no plans to change any charges or fees under your franchise agreement. It is business as usual.

Q Will I have to adhere to the AA’s code of conduct?

A You should continue to adhere to the BSM code of conduct. It is business as usual.

Q Will I be able to keep the franchise type that I am on now as it suits me – at the same price?

A Your franchise agreement will continue under the terms set out in your novation letter.

BSM Brand

Q Are you changing the BSM business to mirror the AA?

A We will be launching a consultation with employees over the future structure of the business. We cannot speculate about the outcome until this consultation has been completed.

Q Sometimes the advertising claims of both AA and BSM are conflicting – how will you deal with that for future advertising?

A Each brand will continue to run its own, unique marketing and advertising strategy.

Q Will you still be booking tests for my pupils on their behalf?

A Yes, It is business as usual.

Vehicle

Q Will you continue to provide us with Fiat cars?

A Under the acquisition agreement, BSM will continue to operate a nationwide fleet of Fiat tuition vehicles until May. The BSM fleet will then undergo a phased transition to a new Vauxhall Corsa, as committed to by BSM last year. This transition to a full fleet of Vauxhalls is expected to take place over a period of about 12 months.

Q What do I do if I have an accident?

A Please call our accident management support line on 0800 7313431

Q What do I do if I need new tyres?

A Your current supplier is ATS and this remains unchanged, authorisation to be made via BSM fleet team

Q What do I do if I need replacement glass?

A Please call your BSM fleet team who will authorise this. Your new provider is AA  Autowindshields.

Q Will the livery change?

A All livery will continue to be BSM branded

Pupils

Q How will you decide whether to give pupils to me or an AA Franchisee?

A We are operating as 2 separate franchise businesses, BSM pupils will be allocated to BSM instructors as they always have been.

Q Will our pupils now have access to the AA web site?

A No. If your pupils purchased lessons through BSM then you will continue to have the same facilities available.

Q Will lesson prices remain as they are?

A There are currently no plans in place to change lesson pricing. However, it is our intention to introduce differential pricing for lessons with PDI trainees- guaranteeing learners an informed choice and discounted lesson rates if their instructor is not fully-qualified.

Website

Q What is going to happen to the BSM website?

A Yes. This will remain fully functional, ensuring we continue to acquire as many pupils as possible.

There are a couple of interesting things here. First of all, BSM remains BSM as far as the brand is concerned. However, there is to be a consultation involving the way BSM operates, and about which the AA will not speculate. Secondly, under ‘Pupils’ it is made clear that the AA intends to change the price PDIs (trainee instructors) can charge and to make it clear to new pupils whether they are being trained by a PDI or not.

In the news today, inflated media stories about plans to close driving test centres and move them all to supermarkets. This one from Sky News via Yahoo.

Note the wording that they “could be axed” – in inverted commas. That’s mediatalk for “we made this up to make it more interesting even though it is completely untrue to the best of our knowledge”.

Leaked documents suggest the Driving Standards Agency is looking at plans to close down test centres and use private firms as “delegated examiners”.

The new plans could see examiners based at supermarkets and community centres.

The reality of this is that the Mickey Mouse government we are currently having to put up with is forcing departments like the DSA to make major cuts. The DSA has previously closed many small town-centre branches and combined many of them to form larger MPTCs (multi-purpose test centres) – which makes sense – and it got the usual flak from people about it. Ironically, it’s always the same people who object to anything the DSA does.

Personally, I don’t like the idea of outsourcing and privatisation. It never worked before, so it can’t possibly work now – and especially not with the driving test (not if they want to make sure the test is discriminating enough to keep at least a few idiots off the roads, anyway). All you have to do is look at call centres being run by contractors, exams being marked by external agencies, and so on to see it is a non-starter.

Unfortunately, this government won’t see it like that.